An Informed View of South Africa, Africa and the World

When whites see black-dominance as “sleepwalking” towards apartheid

I came across a very disturbing article in UK’s This London newspaper published on Wednesday which sought to suggest that anything that has or is of black-dominance is “sleepwalking” towards apartheid as if black people ruled during that time. The newspaper reported on what it called a “landmark report” which had found that London’s secondary school system was dominated by black and Asian pupils.

The reported, according to the newspaper, regarded this black-dominance as a “very high” segregation. The study had found that 53% secondary pupils inLondon were “now from an ethnic background, outstripping white pupils for the first time”. It attributed the change to a “surge in the number from an ethnic background over the last decade, with a dramatic rise in suburban boroughs such as Bromley”.

The study came after David Levin, head of the fee-paying City of London School, reportedly claimed that pupils were “taught in ghettos” and thereby dividing them along racial lines. Levin indicated this increase in black pupils outstripping those of other races, especially whites (my emphasis) was “sleeping walking” towards apartheid.

It would seem that Levin has a problem with this change which should be celebrated byLondon. But no. He does not. And I wonder if it is only Levin’s with this ‘sleepwalking to apartheid’ mentality of black-dominance inLondonschools or that there are many thousands, if not millions, thinking the same way he does. By this thinking Levin and his like (which I suspect there are) seem to suggest that attending school in the ghettos and rural areas is what is good for us black people and the African Americans. That is very disappointing, and that’s putting it mildly. Or maybe it is not surprising that Levin said what he said because he is fromSouth Africa?

Professor Chris Hamnett of King’s College, who compiled the study, said “ghettoisation” was negative a term – and many people would agree with this depending on what context it is used. Hammett conceded that there “are very high levels of ethnic minority segregation in some schools.” He said: “Londonas a whole now has an ethnic minority-dominated secondary school system. In some boroughs, and some schools, ethnic minorities constitute the overwhelming majority of pupils. This has implications for both ethnic segregation in schools, and for pupil attainment.”

Hammett is quoted in the newspaper report as saying: “some ethnic minorities, notably Indian and Chinese pupils have consistently high attainment at GCSE, while other groups, notably those from black and Bangladeshi backgrounds get lower than average results. Thus, the ethnic composition of schools will feed through into different levels of attainment”.

Among other findings, the study found that a proportion of black, Asian and other ethnic pupils is higher in inner London, where two thirds now come from those backgrounds, according to This London newspaper. Measuring changes from 1999 to 2009, the study kept referring to “non-white”, “other ethnic pupils”, “ethnic majority”, “ethnic minority” and “other ethnics” and these make it a difficult story to make sense out of.

That Levin had told This London newspaper that black-dominance in London’s schools was like “selling our children short if they only mix with one tiny cultural or ethnic group” – made me wonder whether he had lived in the apartheid years which we black people were subjected to and whether he knows and understands the cruelty the apartheid’s discriminatory government system had subjected black people to.

Or maybe Levin does not know a shit about what we black people were subjected to during those years when whites like him and his forefathers treated us black people like dogs and even treated us as their slaves, calling us kaffirs and had laws that only restricted us to certain areas and demanded of us to produce dompases all the time in as far as our movement is concerned. And it is not clear – at least to me – what he refers to as a “very cosmopolitan, multi-faith experience” that London should enjoy.